Mom who fled Manitoba wildfire fears housing search will separate her from disabled son
Ozten Shebahkeget | CBC News | Posted: May 15, 2024 10:00 AM | Last Updated: May 15
'Huge operation' fighting flames, finding help for evacuees, says Premier Wab Kinew
Heather Murray burst into tears while recounting what it was like to flee her home with her children as a raging wildfire grew closer to their northwestern Manitoba community last week.
Murray, a single parent who has a 20-year-old son with special needs, says his wheelchair was sent for repairs a couple days before the fire was discovered near their community of Cranberry Portage on Thursday.
Lightning strikes are believed to have sparked the fire, just north of Cranberry Portage and east of Flin Flon, which was intensified by high winds and extremely dry conditions over the weekend, forcing the entire community of Cranberry Portage to evacuate Saturday night.
When they were forced to leave their home, Murray says she had to put her son on a blanket and drag him to their vehicle, adding that it was "quite scary" to see flames behind them as they fled Cranberry Portage.
Murray and her family are now among hundreds of evacuees from Cranberry Portage who escaped to the nearby town of The Pas, where she says businesses held a barbecue for them as they arrived.
"It takes a lot for me to ask for help or even get help, so to come here and see food [when I was] needing food, I was grateful," Murray told CBC News in The Pas on Tuesday afternoon.
"It was surreal, kind of like, 'Why am I here? Why am I going through this?'"
WATCH | 'Very stressful' time for wildfire evacuees:
Murray says her son is now staying at a hospital in The Pas.
"He's happy there. He can be cared [for] better there. It's hard on us," she said. "So there's four of us now — three adults, one child — and we're not sure where we're going tomorrow. We have one more night at the hotel."
Murray was one of several evacuees who spoke with Premier Wab Kinew during his tour of communities near the wildfire on Tuesday. She told him she was advised to go to Dauphin, where more hotel rooms are available, but she does not want to leave her son behind.
"He's the glue to our family. He keeps us together, and we're just feeling lost without him being able to be with us," she said.
Murray also said evacuees should not have had to struggle to find a room once they got to The Pas.
In a Tuesday afternoon update, the province said the wildfire was about 31,600 hectares in size and about 1½ kilometres from Cranberry Portage. The community had a population of 608 in 2021, according to Statistics Canada.
The extent of the blaze can be viewed on the provincial government's interactive fire map.
Joanne Head, another Cranberry Portage evacuee who also spoke with Kinew in The Pas, said the evacuation has been more difficult for seniors and those with health conditions.
"It's a tiny community, so it's very special to each and every one of us," she told Kinew.
Head felt Kinew was listening to the concerns of evacuees, but says she was disappointed with the evacuation itself.
"The RCMP drove around with their sirens [on], and that's how we were notified. We had very little time to gas up our vehicle [and] get our belongings," she told CBC News.
"It's stressful enough, but to not have the essential things that we need, that is even … harder on a lot of us."
Head says there should have been a more prepared response since dry conditions put Cranberry Portage "always at risk" of wildfires.
"This is just the start. Who's to say how many more will come?"
'Huge operation' underway: Kinew
The fight to extinguish the blaze could take a month, Manitoba Wildfire Service director Earl Simmons said earlier this week.
The fire crossed a section of railway in the area and shut down rail travel between Cranberry Portage and Pukatawagan to the north.
A section of the main highway in the region, Highway 10, has reopened, but motorists had to go to checkstops and get a police escort to travel through.
Air tankers and helicopters have been working on the fire, and additional crews from Ontario have joined the effort, with more on the way from Quebec, Kinew said Tuesday.
The response has also involved local and provincial fire officials as well as paramedics, law enforcement and Manitoba Hydro, he said.
"There is a huge operation [to] fight the flames, but also to [bring] services back up in affected communities," Kinew told reporters upon returning to Winnipeg on Tuesday evening.
"We just want to reiterate that for those Manitobans that are displaced right now, we are going to ensure that you get the services that you need."
Kinew also promised financial support for housing, food and other necessities to evacuees. Many of the affected people visited reception centres and were put up in hotels or found room with relatives.
"Some folks may be asked to move to Dauphin further south, Brandon, Winnipeg, other locations," he said.
"Folks are stressed out. It's been a very trying, difficult experience. We're going to just try to make it that much easier for folks who've been through so much already."
WATCH | Premier tours wildfire area: